Shattered
by mysterygirl220
Summary: Everyone reaches a breaking point. What happens when that point shatters? Spoilers for 04x11 "Breaking Point." One Shot.
**Hey everybody! Here's another new story for you! I blame Netflix. I watch all these TV shows that I used to watch and get inspired. I will eventually get back to my Harry Potter and Twilight stories. I plan to redo my Harry Potter story and make it better because I've grown a little bit as a writer. Enjoy this story.**

 **-mysterygirl220**

 ***Disclaimer- I do not own Numb3rs or any of the characters and plot. Any familiar dialogue came from the TV show itself because I can't sound like Charlie Eppes without using some dialogue from the show. This is my take on what might have happened in Breaking Point (04x11).**

 **-Numb3rs-**

Charlie sighed, dragging a hand down his face as he flopped onto his bed. He was grateful that his disaster of a long day finally ended. Charlie never had a good day when his older brother Don hardly spoke to him. That morning, Charlie gave an interview to local media outlets that did not impress Don and his team or the senior members within the FBI. Don gave him flack about the interview all day, pissed off and short answers included. Charlie just wanted to start the whole day over.

Especially after what happened on his way home. He had never been so unnerved. A large truck with bright fog lights tailgated him and followed his every move, even when he pulled to the side of the highway to let the truck pass. Changing into his night clothes, Charlie hoped he would be able to sleep and bury the events from that day. He laid down, tossing and turning until dawn broke the next morning.

 **-Numb3rs-**

Being plagued by nightmares all night does not do wonders for one's emotional stability. Charlie still felt guilty over the interview the previous morning; he decided to stop by the bull pen before going back to CalSci. _Maybe I should tell Don about the truck from last night… No, he has enough on his plate to worry about with this case and enough ire towards me right now that he won't want to deal with my insignificant fears._ Mind made up, he quickly finished his morning routine (which rarely happened with his crazy sleep schedule), and headed to the FBI building.

As the elevator rose, Charlie's nerves returned. Don should have cooled down enough to be relatively rational. Upon reaching the bull pen, Charlie immediately noticed Don, along with Colby and David, watching clips of the missing reporter's news stories. Sneaking in (or trying to since Don turned and stared at him) while they were talking, Charlie spoke up when he had a chance. "I believe I know a way to narrow down the list of possible suspects…"

David cut in. "Yeah, we heard from your little interview yesterday."

"As well as several other things," Don mumbled.

Holding back a small flinch at the heavily sarcastic barbs, Charlie continued. "I can run an asymmetric threat analysis in order to calculate each suspect's motives."

Colby jumped in. "But all twenty-eight suspects are after revenge, right? So how does this analysis help us?"

Charlie sighed lightly. "Yes, but the analysis should calculate the levels of motive, in which the highest level calculated would have the biggest motive for going after your reporter."

"Alright, let's get to work." As Don walked out of the room, Charlie stopped him.

"Don…"

"What, Charlie?" Don growled out, once again causing Charlie to repress a flinch. "Can whatever it is can wait until after we find Bonnie Parks? There's only a small window to hopefully find her alive."

Charlie just shook his head. "Never mind, Don. I'll talk to you later after I've finished the threat assessment." With that, Charlie calmly fled the bull pen back to his office at CalSci.

 **-Numb3rs-**

Charlie stared blankly at the numbers in front of him. They kept swimming in and out of focus, a by-product of his sleepless night and churning emotions stemming from Don's treatment earlier that morning. He knew he'd screwed up giving the interview without talking to his brother about what needed to be kept confidential, but when Charlie was surprised, he had no filter. The memory of that truck following him last night also distracted him from his work. There was something too odd about that event.

Shaking his head to dislodge those thoughts, he locked his office door and set to work. He had to get the analysis done as quickly as possible so Don would have a clearer suspect to go after. The only problem: none of the suspects had yet to have a significantly higher threat value than the rest. _Just something else for Don to be mad at me for._

 **-Numb3rs-**

Charlie yawned as he gathered everything he needed to give to Don. As he predicted, none of the suspects yielded a higher threat value. Walking out to his car, Charlie noticed that the sun had dipped below the horizon several hours ago. He quickly got in his car and headed for the Federal Building.

After being on the road for several minutes, his phone rang, "DON" flashing across the small screen. "Yes, Don?"

"Hey, Charlie. We found these pages full of numbers that we need you to look at." Don was straight to the point as always.

"I'm actually heading your way right now. I just finished my threat assessment."

"Oh, yeah? Anything?" Don sounded distracted.

"Nothing. None of the suspects demonstrated a higher threat level than the rest." Charlie glanced into his rearview mirror as headlights from a truck once again blinded him.

Don groaned. "How is that possible? None of them had a greater motive?" All was quiet on the line. "Charlie, where are you? Get here as soon as you can so you can get these numbers." Don heard nothing on the line. "Charlie?"

Charlie could hear Don calling for him on the line, but he couldn't answer. He held the steering wheel in a white knuckled grip, unable to quash his fear that the same truck from last night had made a reappearance. "…hear me? Charlie!"

Charlie snapped out of it. "Yeah, sorry, Don. I'm here. I'm about fourteen minutes away. Talk to you then." Charlie hung up before Don had a chance to respond. Sighing in relief as the truck behind him turned off, he focused on getting to the FBI without his nerves unraveling. Seeing the traffic was beginning to get congested, Charlie turned and took an alternate route.

As the city lights became less common, he started getting extremely agitated. He turned down another side street, when he passed the same truck from the night before. The truck turned on its fog lights and roared after him, the tires squealing in protest of the sudden acceleration.

"No!" Charlie reached for his cell phone as the truck steadily got closer. Flipping the phone open, Charlie hit the speed dial to call Don's cell phone. The truck rammed into his bumper, the phone flying out of his hand and landing between the passenger seat and the door. Racing down a deserted street, the truck rammed Charlie again as he took a sharp curve, throwing the car into a spin and crashing into trash cans along the sidewalk.

Charlie felt his head whip into the steering wheel. Dazed, Charlie looked out his window. A man jumped out of the truck, screwing a silencer into his pistol.

Scrambling to unbuckle his seatbelt, the man fired, missing him by scant inches. He dived out of the passenger side of his car, running for the tree line. Another shot rings out, and Charlie's world erupted in a blazing fire.

 **-Numb3rs-**

David and Colby were staring worriedly at Don, thinking something was happening with Charlie. "Everything okay, Don?"

Don turned to look at Colby and David. "I think so. Charlie was acting strangely, but I guess that's just due to his lack of results."

Only a couple of minutes later, Don's phone rings again. "CHARLIE" flashed across his screen. Placing the phone next to his ear, and before he can get a word out, he heard tires barking and sound of crunching metal. "Charlie?! What's going on?" Don turned and yelled at Colby and David. "Get a GPS location on Charlie's phone right now. Something's going on." Colby scrambled to his computer, getting a trace established.

Don, panicking at the thought of his baby brother in serious trouble, kept trying to get Charlie to answer him. Don heard a final crash; Charlie cried out. "What's taking so long?!" Don put the phone on speaker in order to multitask. He grabbed his gun and keys, ready to head out to Charlie's location.

Thirty slow, agonizing seconds passed when Colby finally finished the trace. Everyone in the bull pen could hear Charlie on the other end, rapid breathing and scratching. "I've got a location!"

"Let's go!" Don, Colby, and David raced for the stairs because the elevators would take too long. Just as they reached the stairway door, the sound of a gunshot rang out. Don's knees almost buckled. All sound stopped. More scrambling was heard over the line, a car door opening, and running getting faint. Another shot sounded, echoed by the answering cry of Charlie.

 **-Numb3rs-**

Fire blazed along his side to the point Charlie thought he was actually on fire. Crying out, the few lessons Don gave Charlie just after Don joined the FBI kicked in. Getting back on his feet, Charlie continued running for the trees. He had to hide and give his brother enough time to realize something was wrong, unaware his call had made it through. With no moon to guide his way, he listened to his rarely used instincts.

Two different sets of people stumbling into the forest behind him made Charlie flee faster. He tripped over roots, limbs, and other things littering the forest floor. He knew he had to hide _somewhere_. Seeing a very large tree sturdy enough and easier for him to climb, Charlie shimmied up onto a branch, ignoring the burning from his side from pulling himself up, hiding behind the foliage. Several minutes passed when another shot rang out and splinters of bark exploded a foot from his head, causing Charlie to lose his grip. He tumbled down off the limb and crashed hard onto the ground, as still as death.

 **-Numb3rs-**

Don and the team snapped out of their shock and ran full tilt down the stairs. Don barked orders to SWAT, giving them Charlie's location. They piled into the black standard Chevy Suburban and made it to the last known location of Charlie. Don immediately saw his little brother's car, dented from the various things he ran over avoiding the truck. As Don, Colby, and David cautiously approached the car, two men came out from the woods. "Stop, FBI! Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!"

The two men opened fire, forcing the FBI to drop down for cover. The two men had been close enough to their vehicle to quickly get inside and speed off. David fired off shots, taking out the rear glass, but not stopping the truck.

Don ran into the woods, not afraid to call Charlie's name now that the suspects had fled. He had noticed the small amount of blood and grew even more worried. Taking his flashlight, Don started following what little blood he did see. "Colby! David! Get a paramedic here and call off SWAT. Charlie was hit. After, follow the trail and see if you can find him! Hurry!"

The blood pattern turned around on itself several times, making Don's fear and agony spike even more. Charlie was stumbling around in the woods lost and injured. He kept calling his only brother's name, when finally, he heard a small moan.

Stopping to listen, Don located the sound and made his way toward it. At the base of the tree lie Charlie, blood staining the right side of his shirt and his face. "CHARLIE!" Hitting his knees, Don shakily reached his hand out to make sure Charlie was alive. "Charlie? C'mon, Charlie. You have to wake up." He couldn't feel one due to his pulse racing through his own veins.

Grabbing his radio, he called Colby and David and told them to lead the medics in. He kept his flashlight on as a signal. Charlie still wasn't waking up. Throat clogged with tears, Don kept pleading with his brother. "C'mon, Buddy. You need to wake up."

Don ran his hand through Charlie's hair, knowing how much that irritated Charlie, but Don always did it fondly because he loved his brother. "You still have to run your hand through my hair, Don?"

Don snapped his head down and met Charlie's eyes. "Charlie!" At that moment, the paramedics arrived and loaded Charlie onto the backboard. Don stayed at his side, climbing into the ambulance to ride with Charlie to the hospital.

 **-Numb3rs-**

Charlie had to stay in the hospital overnight, but his doctor was optimistic that Charlie could be released the next morning. Charlie only had to get deep stitches along his rib cage where the bullet had grazed his side. Luckily, after all the trauma, Charlie did not have a very severe concussion, only a small one from when his forehead smacked into the steering wheel. Charlie stubbornly refused to be taken off the case, stealing the lists of numbers from Don and holing up in his office at CalSci. Charlie solved the number pattern, leading the team to rescuing Bonnie Parks.

Throughout the remainder of the case, Don had this cloud of guilt hanging over his head after learning Charlie tried to tell him about the truck following him but dismissed him and his fears. The night after the case was solved, Don stood in the living room of Charlie's/their father's house, staring at the dancing flames in the fire place. It may have been spring in California, but Don was chilled to his core after almost losing his brother.

Charlie stood in the doorway to the living room, watching Don come apart. Charlie sat next to Don and wrapped his left arm around his shoulders. Both brothers were crying at this point. "I'm sorry, Charlie. Sorry for snapping at you over the interview, not taking the time to listen to your fears. Not _being there_ for you when you needed me."

Charlie lightly tapped Don on the back of the head. "You _were_ there when I needed you. If you hadn't found me, I would be dead. You can just get so caught up in a case that your first response to me isn't agent to consultant but brother to brother. That line is blurred every day, some days for good and some days are not a good time to blur lines. Don't beat yourself up over this. I don't blame you, but if you want my unnecessary forgiveness, you have it. I love you, Don. You're my big brother that protects me from everything, even when I don't want you to."

The brothers sat there on the couch, where they fell asleep on the couch. Alan Eppes smiled as he knew his boys would be alright. They always would be.


End file.
